Archives: Dec. 2007

Dec.14th

The Mariners say the reasoning is pretty simple. Richie Sexson is the first baseman for 2008 and should he go down, Jose Vidro would likely be the first choice to replace him there.

Broussard was an old-fashioned salary dump.

After earning $3.55 million in 2007 for 240 at-bats, Broussard was arbitration-eligible and expected to ask for more than $4.5 million. The Mariners thought that was too much money to expend on a reserve.

The trade of Broussard, who batted .275 with seven home runs and 29 RBI last year, saved the team a bit more than $4 million.

Keeping Ramirez is liable to lose them fans. The man acquired from Atlanta in a trade of Rafael Soriano was 8-7 last season before being yanked from the rotation, and finished the year with a 7.16 ERA.

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Dec.12th

Baseball fans internationally have been waiting weeks for Japanese right-hander Hiroki Kuroda to decide where he’s going to pitch in the major leagues, and finally the media seems to have discovered the truth.

One Japanese newspaper insists Kuroda will join the Los Angeles Dodgers. Two others say he is flying to America to visit his agent and mull over the offers. An Arizona newspaper reports Kuroda has decided to become a Seattle Mariner.

No, Virginia, it doesn’t appear the media has done any better a job of determining where Kuroda is going than the average fan.

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Dec.11th

The Seattle Mariners must decide Wednesday whether to offer 2008 contracts to three players – Ben Broussard, Horacio Ramirez and John Parrish – and most fans would probably keep one and dump the two pitchers.

By the numbers, it would be hard to argue.

Parrish is the easiest call, a 30-year-old left-handed reliever picked up from Baltimore who never had a good game in Seattle. Over eight appearances and 10 1/3 innings, Parrish gave up 22 hits and four walks, finishing with a 6.97 earned run average.

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Dec.6th

Shut out like most everyone else at the winter meetings, the Seattle Mariners landed a starting pitcher Thursday – selecting 33-year-old knuckleball specialist R.A. Dickey in the Rule 5 Draft.

A first-round pick in 1996, Dickey had a long climb to the majors with the Texas Rangers, but didn’t start throwing a knuckleball until 2005. A right-hander, Dickey had a 16-19 major league record with a 5.72 earned run average.

Returning to the minor leagues and taking up the knuckler fulltime, however, Dickey seemed to find the touch on that pitch last year, when he went 13-6 with

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Dec.5th

As the clock on the winter meetings winds down – they end Thursday about noon here – the teams who have pitching to trade aren’t trading them.

That doesn’t mean the Seattle Mariners have tried various combinations or haven’t worked hard on their push for pitching. It means the sellers are asking for more than anyone has been able to come up with.

That scenario may not change here. The Twins and Orioles and Athletics may keep the arms race going by flying home with their pitching intact. The logic is simple – the closer to spring training

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Dec.4th

Forget their best intentions – the Seattle Mariners aren’t going to get Johan Santana and could lose out on Erik Bedard.

So today, they’ll increase their offer to free agent right-hander Hiroki Kuroda and continue to talk to any team except Oakland about pitching. So far, that hasn’t helped. The Mariners talked to Milwaukee, but the Brewers say they aren’t interested in trading Ben Sheets.

As soon as Detroit acquired Dontrelle Willis, the Mariners called the Tigers to see if they were interested in moving a starting pitcher.

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About

Bob Dutton joins The News Tribune after more than 25 years at the Kansas City Star, including the last 13 covering baseball and the Royals. He was the president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America in 2008 and serves on the committee that nominates players to the Hall of Fame.